LESLIE: Collin in Florida’s got some decorative ideas. What can we do for you?
COLLIN: Hi. Yeah, I had a question about installing crown moulding.
TOM AND LESLIE: OK.
COLLIN: I have a living room that has tall ceilings and multiple inside and outside corners. You know, I’ve looked on the internet and there’s all kinds of guides on how to do this, as well as cutting jigs – I guess you’d call them – that you could attach to your mitre saw to help you cut better corners. And I just was wondering if you had any expert advice, so to speak, because I’m not sure on the internet who to trust and who not.
LESLIE: Are you following the ceiling line exactly or are you coming down a bit from it?
COLLIN: In the – in the corner. We’re not – yeah, they’re not going to be dropped (inaudible).
LESLIE: OK.
TOM: Collin, what size crown moulding are you hoping to put in here?
COLLIN: Probably four to six inch. It’s a big room with tall ceilings.
TOM: Well, I will tell you that cutting crown moulding is a very tricky job. And one way to do it with your power mitre box is basically to use the fence and the base of the mitre box and treat that as if that was the ceiling corner that you’re working with. You’re kind of cutting it upside down and backwards.
LESLIE: Yeah, you want to make sure that the crown moulding is upside down and facing towards you. Right? Upside down and towards you.
COLLIN: OK.
TOM: Yeah. And then, using the mitre box, you can draw a line on the fence and also on the base so that you know it’s the same angle as what it would be on the wall. And when you cut it, you’ll end up with a compound mitre cut that’s the same every time.
The other thing to know here is that you don’t – you don’t put a mitre on both inside corners. You only put a mitre on one corner and then you back cut it to do something called coping; which basically means you cut out all of the extra wood and it’ll give the illusion of a mitre but it actually is easier to do.
LESLIE: And also, if you find places where your ceiling starts to slope up and you’re going to mimic that slope, you’re going to need a tool called a T bevel. And what does is it’s sort of a sliding bevel marker and you would open it out and put it so that it mocks that exact angle. And then you take that, lock it in place, take it to your mitre saw and then you match your blade up to it. Because you’re going to use both your compound cut and your angle cut as well and you’re going to need both of them.
Remember that outside corners have the exterior part of the moulding extend from them and inside corners have more of the, you know, cut edge extending. It just takes practice. It’s not difficult. It just takes a lot of patience and practice.
TOM: Yeah, practice with the small stuff and work up to the big stuff.
Collin, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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